Carney and Harper play up importance of emerging markets for Canadian exports

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney told a Waterloo, Ont., audience Monday that Canada’s ability to trade with markets in developing countries will be key to its economic future. ”Emerging markets represent the greater opportunity for Canadian exporters. Since the recession, these economies have accounted for roughly two-thirds of global economic growth and one-half of the growth in global imports,” said Carney, quoted by the National Post.

Carney based his prognosis on a long term global economic forecast that sees the continuation of this trend. The central banker noted in his speech that, currently, 85 per cent of Canada’s exports go to Japan, the U.S. and Europe, while only 8 per cent are sent to emerging markets like India, Brazil and China, the Globe and Mail reported. The opportunity for growth in the “post-crisis world”, according to Carney, lies in those rising markets.

It’s an approach that has recently been espoused by the federal government. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, speaking in Washington Monday after the “Three Amigos” meeting with his Mexican and American counterparts, said that finding new customers for Canada’s oil exports is vital to national self-interest, and that the country will pursue the sale of oils ands bitumen to Asia even if the U.S. government approves the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry Alberta’s crude into the southern U.S.

“Would approval of this change our mind? The answer is no. The very fact that a ‘No’ could be said (to Keystone) underscores the urgency of expanding our export markets,” Harper said, according to the Toronto Star.

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